System for detecting ice or snow on surface which specularly reflects light

ABSTRACT

A system for detecting the presence of an energy polarization altering dielectric material, such as ice or snow, on a surface, such as a part of an aircraft, which normally specularly reflects incident energy, such as light, when there is no such dielectric present. The energy is conveyed from a transmitter along a path to the surface and the incident energy is reflected from the surface along a path to a receiver with a dielectric on the surface destroying any polarization, such as circular, of the energy and that reflected from a specular portion maintaining the polarization. An optical system in one or both of the paths operates in an isolator state to produce an image of the dielectric portion having a first intensity level and that of the specular portion passing through the optical system having a different intensity level. When the optical system is operated alternately in isolator and non-isolator states it produces an image of the dielectric portion having a relatively steady intensity level and that of the specular potion alternating between first and second different intensity levels corresponding to the isolator and non-isolator states of the optical system.

This is a continuation of patent application Ser. No. 07/963,840, filedOct. 20, 1992, and herewith at the time of filing the present continuingapplication, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,475,370.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Current airport aviation practices depend on the use of de-icing fluidto remove ice and prevent its future build-up for time periods of 5-10minutes. Verification that wing and other aerodynamic or controlsurfaces are ice free is done visually, often under difficult viewingconditions. Occasionally significant ice build-ups are not noticed, withtragic results. Responsibility for detecting such ice rests with theaircraft crew who rely on visual viewing, perhaps supplemented with anordinary flashlight. Obviously, a need exists for a system which iscapable of accurately and easily determining the presence of ice on anaircraft wing.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Metallic surfaces and dielectric surfaces behave differently whenilluminated with light, particularly with respect to their polarizationproperties. One of the strongest differences and most easily observableis the property of metals to reverse the rotational direction ofcircularly polarized light. For example, the specular reflection ofright handed (clockwise looking towards the source) circularly polarizedlight from a metal surface changes it to left handed (counterclockwise)polarization and vice versa. This effect is used in the construction ofoptical isolators which permit light to initially pass through theisolator but prevent specularly reflected light from returning throughthe isolator back to the source. The optical isolator is a circularpolarizer that is usually implemented from a linear polarizer and aquarter wave retarder plate that has its fast and slow axes located 45°from the polarization axis of the polarizer. The polarizer must precedethe retarder in the light path.

When a metallic surface (or surface painted with a metallic paint), suchas the wing of an aircraft, is illuminated with circularly polarizedlight (which may be generated by passing unpolarized light through acircular polarizer) and the reflected energy viewed through the samecircular polarizer, the resulting image is extremely dim since thecircular polarizer is performing as an isolator with respect to thespecular reflection from the metal surface. Other types of surfaces(dielectric, matte, etc.) viewed through the same circular polarizermaintain their normal brightness because upon reflection they destroythe circular polarization. If the circular polarizer is flipped(reversed) so that the retarder precedes the polarizer, it no longeracts as an isolator for the illuminating beam and the metallic surface'simage will now be viewed of normal (bright) intensity.

Most non-metallic and painted or matte surfaces illuminated withcircularly polarized light and viewed through the same circularpolarizer will approximately maintain their normal intensity. Suchsurfaces, as well as a coat of ice on the metal, whether matte white dueto a snow covering or crystal clear due to even freezing will destroythe circular polarization of the reflected light and therefore take onthe depolarizing property of a matte painted surface with respect to theoptical isolator. A transparent dielectric over metal depolarizescircularly polarized light passing through it if it has numerousinternal point scatterers or is birefringent. Ice has thischaracteristic. Thus, circularly polarized light reflected from apainted surface, snow, ice, or even transparent ice over metal will bedepolarized and will not be affected by the isolator.

Therefore, the image of a clear metal surface that is ice-free willalternate between dark and bright when alternately viewed through anisolator and non-isolator structure, respectively. Apparatus other thanthe combination of optical isolators and non-isolators via circularpolarizers can produce the same effect. Any ice or snow covering themetal surface will cause the image to maintain the same brightnessregardless of whether it is viewed through an isolator or non-isolatorstructure or equivalent structures.

The present invention provides various arrangements for inspecting ametal surface for the presence of ice which compares views of thesurface in an optical isolating and non-isolating manner. Making suchcomparisons in an alternating manner results in the metal surfaceproducing a blinking, on-off, viewing of the reflected light and the iceproducing a steady level of illumination.

In accordance with the invention, various embodiments are provided forinspecting a metallic surface in which there is a comparison orswitching between an optical isolator structure and non-isolatorstructure. In one embodiment, switching is implemented by switching thelight illuminating the metal surface between circularly polarized andnon-circularly polarized light while observing through a circularpolarizing filter of the same land, i.e., CW or CCW, as required tocomplete the isolator. In another embodiment, the light illuminating thesurface may be kept circularly polarized but viewed alternately througha circular polarizer of the same hand and a non-circular polarizingelement having the same optical attenuation. This is most easilyaccomplished by viewing through the same type of circular polarizerflipped over (reflected light enters the polarizing element first) tokeep it from acting as the circular to linear polarizing element of anisolator while simultaneously maintaining the slight light attenuationof its elements.

Another embodiment maintains the illumination in a circularly polarizedstate and alternately views the scene through right handed and lefthanded circular polarizers which will alternately change between theisolating and non-isolating states. A non-isolating state may also beachieved by rotating either the receiver or transmitter quarter waveretarder plate forming a part of the polarizer by 45°. This aligns theslow or fast axis of the retarder with its polarizer. The effect isthat, if done at the transmitter, linearly polarized light passingthrough the quarter wave plate remains linearly polarized and if done atthe receiver, circularly polarized light (which) passes through theretarder plate first) emerges linearly polarized at 45° to the originaldirection--it can then pass through the linear polarizer with justslight attenuation.

Rotation of either the transmitter or receiver quarter wave retarder by90° from the position in which it serves to operate as an isolator alsochanges the state to non-isolating because the specularly reflectedcircularly polarized wave is then exactly aligned with the receiverpolarizer as it emerges in the linearly polarized form from thereceivers quarter wave retarder. Isolating and non-isolating states mayalso be achieved by various combinations of crossed and aligned linearpolarizers, respectively.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide anapparatus for detecting the presence of a depolarizing dielectricmaterial, such as ice or snow, on a metal specular reflecting surface.

A further object is to provide a system for detecting ice and/or snow onthe metal (or metallic painted) wing of an aircraft.

An additional object is to provide a system for detecting ice and/orsnow on a metal (or metallic painted) surface which is specularlyreflective to light using circularly or linearly polarized light.

Yet another object is to provide a system for detecting ice or snow on ametal or metallic painted surface in which optical means are used toproduce an on-off light blinking response for a metal surface and asteady light response for any part of the surface covered with ice orsnow.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become moreapparent upon reference to the following specification and annexeddrawings, in which:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A is an optical schematic of a circular polarizer with the linearpolarizer facing the illumination source so that the polarizer acts asan optical isolator.

FIG. 1B is an optical schematic of a circular polarizer with the quarterwave plate facing the illumination source so that it passes specularlyreflected light, i.e., it is a non-isolator;

FIG. 2 is an optical schematic of two circular polarizers, one in thetransmit path and one in the detection path, that together form anoptical isolator;

FIG. 3A is a schematic view of an ice detection apparatus based ondirect visual observation using two spotlight illuminators, onepolarized and one not;

FIG. 3B is a schematic view of an ice detection apparatus based ondirect visual observation which uses one circularly polarized lightsource;

FIG. 3C is a detail of the FIG. 3B apparatus for switching the polarizerbetween isolating and non-isolating states in the detection path;

FIG. 4A is a schematic diagram of a video based ice detection systemsuitable for use with high background illumination levels which employstwo strobed light sources;

FIG. 4B is a schematic diagram of a video based ice detecting systememploying one laser based strobed light source suitable for use withhigh background illumination levels;

FIG. 5A is a schematic view of the device used in FIG. 4B to switch thepolarizer from an isolating to a non-isolating state in the detectionpath;

FIG. 5B is a plan view of the motor, polarizer and encoder assembly usedwith the apparatus of FIG. 5A;

FIG. 5C is a schematic view of the photo interrupter device used in theencoder assembly of FIG. 5B;

FIG. 6 is an optical schematic diagram of the laser light source of thesystem of FIG. 4B;

FIG. 7 is a schematic of another embodiment of the invention whichutilizes synchronous detection; and

FIG. 8A is a schematic view of an embodiment which uses two videocameras and a beam splitter device;

FIG. 8B is a schematic view of the optical path of FIG. 8A using twomirrors to replace the beam splitter device of FIG. 8A;

FIG. 9A is a schematic view of a polarization sensitive camera basedupon a variation of color camera technology which is particularlysuitable for use in the receive path; and

FIG. 9B is a section view of details of the polarization sensitivecamera.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1A illustrates the operation of a circular polarizer used as anisolator. Light is emitted from an unpolarized source 13, whichpreferably is as close to monochromatic as possible. The light is shownas unpolarized by the arrows in two orthogonal directions along line 20,the path the light is following. The unpolarized light passes through alinear polarizer 11 which has a vertical polarization axis. The lightpassing through linear polarizer 11 takes path 21, along this pathillustrated as vertical polarization by the double arrow.

The vertically polarized light at 21 passes through a quarter waveretarder plate 12. The retarder 12 is a plate made from birefringentmaterial, such as mica or crystal quartz. Its purpose is to changelinearly polarized light from polarizer 11 into circularly polarizedlight. Any ray incident normal to the retarder plate 12 can be thoughtof as two rays, one polarized parallel to the parent crystal's opticaxis (e-ray) and the other perpendicular (o-ray). The e-ray and o-raytravel through the plate 12 at different speeds due to the differentrefractive indices. The plate 12 is said to have a "fast" and a "slow"axis.

The quarter wave retarder plate 12 has its slow and fast axes both at45° relative to the vertical axis of the linear polarizer 11 so that theemerging circular polarized light from plate 12 along path 22 isrotating in a CCW direction as viewed facing the light source from areflecting surface 14. A metallic surface, which is a specularreflector, and a dielectric surface, i.e., ice or snow, behavedifferently when illuminated with light, particularly with respect totheir polarization properties. A strong and easily observable differenceis the ability of a metal to reverse the rotational direction ofincident circularly polarized light. The specular reflection ofright-handed (CW) circularly polarized light from a metal surfacechanges into left-handed (CCW) polarization and vice versa.

This effect is used in the construction of optical isolators whichpermit light to initially pass through the isolator but prevent suchlight when specularly reflected from returning through the isolator backto the light source. When the optical isolator is a circular polarizerit is usually implemented from a linear polarizer and a quarter waveretarder plate that has its fast and slow axes located 45° from thepolarization axis of the polarizer.

In FIG. 1A, surface 14, which is a specular surface, reflects theincident circular polarized light back along path 23. The reflectedlight continues to rotate as viewed from the surface 14 in the CCWdirection but has now changed "hand", in terms of right hand and lefthand, because it is rotating in the same direction with its direction oftravel changed.

The reflected light on path 23 passes through the quarter wave retarder12 and emerges no longer circularly polarized but linearly polarized inthe horizontal direction, which is shown along ray path segment 24.Because the light ray 24 is horizontally polarized it is not passed bythe (vertical) linear polarizer 11. Therefore, none of the specularlyreflected light gets through to path segment 25 to enter the eye 26,which is shown near the location of the light source 13. Thus, thequarter wave retarder plate 12 acts as an optical isolator. That is,light from the source 13 is passed through the circular polarizer andreflected by the specular surface 14 but cannot pass through thecircular polarizer back in the other direction and so is blocked beforeit gets to the eye.

FIG. 1B shows the same quarter wave plate and linear polarizercombination used but the sequence of the elements is reversed. Here, thequarter wave retarder plate 12 is facing the illumination source 13 andthe linear polarizer 11 is facing the output side towards the reflectingsurface 14. The light rays now emerge from source 13 in an unpolarizedform along ray path 20 and pass through the quarter wave plate 12.However, because the light is not polarized the quarter wave plate 12does not change any polarization properties. The light then passesthrough the linear polarizer 11 and becomes vertically polarized alongray path 22.

Surface 14 specularly reflects with the same polarization the verticallypolarized light which travels along ray path 23 back towards the linearpolarizer 11 with the same polarization. The light now enters thequarter wave retarder plate 12. Because the light entering plate 12 ispolarized in the vertical direction, it emerges from the quarter waveplate circularly polarized. However, this is of no consequence to theeye 26, so the eye sees the light that has been reflected from thesurface 14. Thus, in this case with the light first entering the quarterwave plate 12 and then passing through the linear polarizer 11 and beingspecularly reflected back to the eye through the linear polarizer andthe quarter wave plate, there is little loss in the light intensity.

As can be seen in the comparison of FIGS. 1A and 1B, light from the samesource 13 reflected from the specular reflection surface 14 is viewed bythe eye 26 either dim or bright depending upon the location of thequarter wave retarder plate 12 relative to the linear polarizer 11. Thatis, FIG. 1A effectively is an optical isolator while FIG. 1B is anon-isolator.

FIG. 2 shows the same implementation of a circular polarizer as in FIG.1A, with the receive path and the transmit path each having their owncircular polarizers. Both circular polarizers are in the same order.That is, both linear polarizers 11a and 11b are on the left, oneadjacent to the light source 13 and the other the eye 26, and bothquarter wave retarders 12a, 12b are on the right adjacent to thereflective surface. Thus, as shown, the light from lamp 13 enters thelinear polarizer 11a, exits vertically polarized, passes through thequarter wave plate 12a and emerges rotating CCW as viewed from thespecular reflecting surface 14. The light reflects off the surface 14still polarized rotating CCW as viewed from surface 14 and passesthrough the circular polarizer 12b in the return direction path to enterquarter wave plate 12b, from which it exits horizontally polarized tothe vertical linear polarizer 11b which blocks the light. Linearpolarizer 11b in the reception leg is distinct and separate from thelinear (vertical) polarizer 11a that was used in the transmit leg.Because the polarization of the light ray along path 24 is horizontal,the light does not pass through the linear polarizer 11b and cannotenter the eye 26.

When a metallic surface, such as the wing of an air-craft, isilluminated with circularly polarized light produced by the device ofFIG. 1A and the reflected energy viewed through the same circularpolarizer the resulting image is extremely dim since the circularpolarizer is performing as an isolator with respect to the specularreflection of the circularly polarized light (of opposite hand) from themetallic surface.

A painted portion (non-specular) of the surface illuminated withcircularly polarized light does not reflect light in a polarized form.Instead, it destroys the circular polarization and makes the reflectedlight unpolarized. Thus, the unpolarized light reflected from a paintedsurface portion when viewed through the same circular polarizer of FIG.1A will maintain its normal intensity. The same holds true for circularpolarized light reflected from a wing covered by ice or snow. However,other common harmless substances such as water or de-icing fluid thatmay be on the wing do not destroy the circular polarization of thereflected light.

As explained with respect to FIG. 1B, the components of the circularpolarizer of FIG. 1A are flipped (rotated) such that the retarder plate12 precedes the linear polarizer 11 with respect to the source of light13, so it no longer acts as a circular polarizer to an illuminatingbeam. Accordingly, the reflection of circular polarized light from themetal surface will pass back to the eye and will be of normal (bright)intensity. The image intensity of such light reflected from a painted ordielectric (non-specular) surfaces also will be unchanged as in theprevious case.

When a metallic surface is alternately illuminated and viewed by theisolator and non-isolator devices of FIGS. 1A and 1B, the return imagesat the eye 26 will alternate between dark and bright. A painted ordielectric non-specular surface will remain uniformly bright to thealternation since the light reflected from the painted or dielectricsurface is not polarized and will not be isolated.

Assuming that a metallic surface has a patch of ice thereon or is coatedwith ice, the ice being either matte white due to snow covering orcrystal clear due to even freezing, this will destroy the circularpolarization of the reflected light and therefore take on the propertyof a matte painted surface with respect to the optical isolator. Thatis, referring to FIG. 1A, if there is ice on any portion of the specularsurface 14, then the circularly polarized light 14 impinging upon suchportion of the surface will not have its polarization reversed. Instead,it will have the effect of a painted surface so that the returned lightwill be non-polarized and will pass to the eye, i.e., the returned imagewill be bright.

Accordingly, upon alternately illuminating and viewing an ice-freemetallic surface 14 with the circular polarizer-isolator of FIG. 1A andthe non-isolator of FIG. 1B, the return viewed by the eye 26 willalternate between dark and bright respectively. Any ice or snow coveringa portion of the metal surface 14 will cause that portion of the imageto maintain the same brightness regardless of whether it is viewedthrough an isolator or non-isolator structure upon such alternateillumination and viewing.

Switching between an isolator structure, e.g., FIG. 1A, and non-isolatorstructure, e.g., FIG. 1B, may be implemented by switching the lightilluminating the metallic surface between circularly polarized andnon-circularly polarized light while observing through a circularpolarizing filter of the same hand, i.e., CW or CCW, as required tocomplete the isolator. As an alternative, the light illuminating themetallic surface may be kept circularly polarized but viewed alternatelythrough a circular polarizer of the same hand and a non-circularpolarizing element having the same optical attenuation. This is mosteasily accomplished by viewing through the same type of circularpolarizer flipped over (reflected light enters the polarizer elementfirst) to keep it from acting as the circular to linear polarizingelement of an isolator while simultaneously maintaining the slight lightattenuation of its elements.

Another arrangement is to maintain the illumination in a circularpolarized state. Thereafter, the surface would alternately be viewedthrough right-handed and left-handed circular polarizers whichalternately change between the isolating and non-isolating states.

A non-isolating state also may be achieved by rotating either thereceiver or transmitter quarter wave retarder plate 12 by 45°. Thisaligns the slow or fast axis of the retarder with its polarizer. The neteffect is that, if done at the transmitter, linearly polarized lightpassing through the quarter wave plate remains linearly polarized. Ifdone at the receiver, circularly polarized light (which passes throughthe retarder plate first) emerges linearly polarized at 45° to theoriginal direction. It can then pass through the linear polarizer to beviewed with just slight attenuation.

Rotating either the transmitter or receiver quarter wave retarder by 90°from the position in which it serves to operate as an isolator alsochanges the state to non-isolating because the specularly reflectedcircularly polarized wave is then exactly aligned with the receiverpolarizer as it emerges in linearly polarized form from the receiver'squarter wave retarder.

The following table illustrates the implementation that may be used whenalternating either the illumination (transmitter) or receiver (detector)polarizing elements or vice versa to change the overall path from anisolator to a non-isolator structure:

    ______________________________________                                        Between Transmitter                                                                         Between Surface                                                 and Surface (or                                                                             and Receiver (or                                                Surface and Receiver)                                                                       Transmitter and Surface)                                        ______________________________________                                        CW only       [CW, LP] [CW, UP] [CW, CCW]                                     CW, LP        CW                                                              CW, UP        CW                                                              CW, CCW       CW or CCW                                                       LP            LP+, LP-                                                        ______________________________________                                    

In the table above the following abbreviations are used;

    ______________________________________                                        CW       Clockwise polarization - (Right handed)                              CCW      Counter Clockwise polarization - (Left handed)                       LP       Linear polarization                                                  LP+      Linear polarizer aligned with LP                                     LP-      Linear polarizer at blocking angle (e.g. 90°) to                       LP                                                                   UP       Unpolarized                                                          ______________________________________                                    

Alternating states are separated by commas.

Equivalent sets of alternating states are isolated by square brackets.

In any row CW and CCW may be interchanged. In any row CW may be replacedby RH (right hand) and CCW by LH (left hand).

(The columns can be interchanged), i.e., the action can be either on thetransmitter or receiver leg.

The table shows that when using linear polarization, the isolating staterefers to the receiving polarizer being orthogonal to the polarizationof the transmitted energy beam, and the non-isolating state refers toany of the following conditions: (a) non-polarized transmission; (b) nopolarizer in the receiver path; or (c) the polarizer in the receiverpath is approximately aligned with the polarization of the transmittedbeam.

FIG. 3A is a schematic view of a monoclular version of an ice detectionsystem suitable for night use based on direct visual observation. Thedirect visual observation receiver uses a non-inverting telescope 50with a circular polarizer 40, like the circular polarizer of FIG. 1A, atits entrance. Two spotlights 13a, 13b are used for the source ofillumination, i.e., the transmitter. One spotlight 13a has a circularpolarizer 30 isolator, like FIG. 1A, mounted to it. The other spotlight13b has a neutral density filter 30a or a "same and" circularlypolarized filter mounted backwards so that the light coming through islinearly and not circularly polarized, i.e., like the non-isolator ofFIG. 1B.

The two spotlights 13a, 13b illuminate a common over-lapping area of asurface shown as the entire area or a portion of an aircraft wing 15having a patch 16 of ice thereon. The clear (no ice) portions of thewing 15 form a specular reflecting surface such as the surface 14 ofFIGS. 1A and 1B. The wing 15 is observed by the field of view 23 of thenon-inverting telescope 50. Both spotlights 13a, 13b and thenon-inverting telescope 50 are mounted on a support structure 52, whichin turn is mounted to a tripod or boom 54. A power supply and sequencer51 for the lights 13a, 13b is also located on the tripod boom structure.Two outputs from the sequencer 51 are taken along wires 53a and 53b toconnect with and alternately energize the lamps 13a and 13b,respectively.

The eye 26 is shown looking through the telescope 50. The field of viewof the upper spotlight 13a is shown as 22a and that of the lowerspotlight 13b as 22b. The region observed by the non-inverting telescope50 is formed from the fan of rays 23 reflected back from wing 15 intothe telescope 50.

In operation, the sequencer 51 alternates between sending a voltage toand alternately energizing spotlight 13a and then spotlight 13b duringcorresponding time periods "a" and "b". When the voltage is applied tospotlight 13a the outgoing light is circularly polarized by polarizer 30and the light emerges in fan 22a which illuminates the aircraft wingsurface 15. The light from fan 22a reflected from the aircraft wing 15passes back through fan 23 into the circular polarizer 40 ofnon-inverting telescope 50 where it may be viewed by the eye 26 duringthe interval "a". During the period "a" an optical isolator arrangementis in place because there are two circular polarizers 30 and 40 in thepath. This is shown in FIG. 2. That is, metal areas of the wing whichproduce a specular mirror like reflection reverse the "hand" of theincident circularly polarized light and prevent it from passing backthrough the isolator. Therefore, the eye 26 sees a very dark regioncovering the aircraft wing, except where there is ice, which is shown onarea 16 of the aircraft wing and which area will show brighter to theeye through the telescope.

When spotlight 13a is turned off and spotlight 13b is turned on duringperiod "b", the light emerging from spotlight 13b is not circularlypolarized. Now the reflection coming back to telescope 50 from both theareas with ice or a metal area without ice will approximately maintaintheir normal brightness. Thus as the sequencer 51 alternately energizesthe spotlights 13a and 13b, the image at the eye 26 from any area thatis metal, specular and ice free will appear to blink on and off. Thiswill be "on" (bright) when the optical isolator is not in operation and"off" (dark) when isolation exists. However, areas that have ice willnot blink and will have essentially constant brightness, because thepolarized light produced during period "a" is de-polarized uponimpinging and being reflected from the ice or the metal under the ice.

FIG. 3B shows another ice detection apparatus especially suitable fornight use, which is based on direct visual observation and uses only onespotlight 13 with a circular polarizer 30, such as FIG. 1A. In FIG. 3Bthe receiver telescope 50 has apparatus at its input for changing acircular polarizer between the isolating (FIG. 1A) and non-isolating(FIG. 1B) states. Here, the illumination source 13 and the telescope 50are mounted on a bracket 52 of a boom mount or tripod 68. A power supply67 for lamp 13 also is mounted on the boom.

Power supply 67 supplies the power to lamp 13 along cable 66b. Lamp 13incorporates a circular polarizer 30, such as of FIG. 1A. The fieldilluminated by lamp 13 is shown as 22a and encompasses an aircraft wingarea 15 which has an area of ice 16. Telescope 50 has a field of viewencompassing the aircraft wing, or portion of the wing, and this isshown in the ray fan 23 which enters the telescope. Telescope 50alternates between optical isolation and non-isolation to the reflectedlight using a circular polarizer made of a fixed linear polarizer 41 andquarter wave retarder plate 42. As shown in FIG. 3C, the quarter waveretarder plate 42 is rotated about its optical axis by drive 65.

FIG. 3C is a detail showing the apparatus for rotating the quarter waveretarder plate 42. The quarter wave retarder plate is rim driven byfriction drive 65 attached to a motor shaft 64 driven by a motor 63which itself is attached to telescope housing 61. Bearings 62 betweenthe quarter wave retarder plate 42 and the housing 61 relieve frictionso that the quarter wave retarder plate may freely rotate about itsoptical axis. When the quarter wave plate has rotated to such a positionthat its slow and fast axes are at 45° to the vertical, as shown in FIG.2, the unit acts as an optical isolator and any circularly polarizedlight that is specularly reflected from the aircraft wing cannot passthrough the combination of the quarter wave retarder and the linearpolarizer to the eye 26.

A similar end may be achieved by rotating the linear polarizer 41 viarim drive 60 and keeping the quarter wave retarder plate 42a fixed or bykeeping both linear polarizer 41 and quarter wave retarder plate 42fixed and rotating a half wave plate mounted between them with rim drive60.

The position for optical isolation is achieved twice during twopositions spaced 180° apart of each revolution of the quarter waveretarder 42. At any other position of rotation of plate 42, there is noisolation and the circularly polarized light reflected from the variousportions of the wing, both metal and ice, is free to pass through to theeye with only minimal attenuation. Therefore, the specularly reflectivemetal portion of the wing that is not covered with ice will reflectlight from the illuminator 13, circularly polarized, back through theisolating mechanism 41,42a and this specularly reflected light will beinterrupted twice per revolution and blink off completely. During theother positions of the circular polarizer retarder plate 42 rotation thelight will pass through to the eye 26. Thus, the "on"-"off" blinkingeffect will be produced twice for each rotation of plate 42.

On the areas of the wing 15 when there is ice present, the incidentcircularly polarized light from lamp 13 and polarizer 30 will bedepolarized due to the surface of the ice or by passing through the ice.This depolarized light will pass through the isolator 42A at thetelescope 50 regardless of the rotational position of the quarter waveretarder plate 42. That is, even when the plate 42 is in one of its twoisolating positions relative to reflected polarized light, thenon-polarized light reflected from the ice will pass through to thetelescope as well as when the retarder plate is in a non-isolatingposition.

The eye 26, which is looking through the telescope 50, is able todifferentiate between the blinking effect produced by the ice freesection of the wing 15 and the non-blinking effect produced by sections16 of the wing with ice. That is, the sections of the wing covered withice 16 will appear to have constant illumination and the ice freesections of the wing will appear to blink at a rate of twice the speedof rotation of the quarter wave plate 42.

In either of the embodiments of FIGS. 3A and 3B, the apparatus can bemoved to scan all parts of the wing if the field of view is not largeenough.

FIG. 4A shows an indirect viewing video-based ice detecting system thatemploys two strobe lamp spotlights and is suitable for use with highbackground illumination levels.

The system of FIG. 4A is similar to that of FIG. 3A in that it employstwo strobe lamps 93a, 93b. These lamps are of the type which produce ahigh intensity output, for example a xenon lamp, for a short timeperiod. Here, both strobe lamp 93a and 93b have circular polarizers,such as in FIG. 1A, attached. One is a right handed circular polarizer30a and the other a left handed circular polarizer 30b. The strobe lamps93a and 93b are used in conjunction with a conventional video camera 80with a lens 81 having a right handed circular polarizer 40 at its input.

The analog signals of the image produced by the video camera, whichobserves the scene illuminated by the strobe lamps 93a, 93b, are sent toa conventional frame grabber 70. The frame grabber 70 converts theanalog video signal from camera 70 to digital form and stores them in adigital memory buffer 70a. Pulse generator 75 is used to initiate thestrobing of the lights and the grabbing of a single isolated frame bythe frame grabber from the video camera.

The system also preferably has a digital to analog converter and syncgenerator so that the image stored in the buffer 72a can be sent fromthe frame grabber video output to a video monitor and/or VCR 72 alongcable 71. The video monitor and the video cassette recorder (VCR) arecommercially available. As an alternative, the video monitor may have adisk recorder which is also commercially available. The frame grabbermay be purchased with additional memory attached and a computer as partof one single image processor unit. This portion is shown as 70A. Framegrabber 70 and its memory, plus computer CPU 90A may be boughtcommercially as the Cognex 4400.

A flip flop 85 alternates between states on every strobe pulse producedby pulse generator 75. This allows selectively gating a strobe pulse toeither lamp 93a or 93b so that they are illuminated alternately. When apulse trigger input is received by the frame grabber 70 from pulsegenerator 75 output 76, a camera synchronized strobe pulse is generatedwhich is fed from the frame grabber output 74 to the flip flop 85. Thestrobe pulse toggles flip flop 85 and is also gated through one of twoAND gates 89a and 89b. When the flip flop 85 is in one state the strobeout of the frame grabber is gated through AND gate 94a to the input 94aof strobe lamp 93a. When flip flop 85 is in its other state, a pulse issent along wire 53b to input 94b of strobe lamp 93b. Thus, lamps 93a and93b are alternately illuminated.

The field of view from the strobe lamp 93a with right hand circularpolarizer 30a is shown as 22a. The illumination area from strobe lamp93b with left handed circular polarizer 30b is shown as 22b. The videocamera 80 has a field of view 23 that covers the overlapping regionbetween 22a and 22b. In the video camera field of view 23 are the wing15 with iced area 16. The images that correspond to wing 15 and icedarea 16 that are shown on the video monitor 72 are labeledcorrespondingly as 15a and 16a.

During operation, the pulse generator 75 is set to provide triggersignals at a constant rate, e.g., in a range between 1 and 10 Hz. When atrigger signal enters the frame grabber input 77, it is synchronizedwith the frame grabber internal cycle and at the proper time the framegrabber provides a strobe to flip flop 85 which is passed on to strobelamps 93a or 93b. The strobe output is timed to be properly aligned withthe frame synchronization signal that is sent along cable 84 from framegrabber output 83 into the video camera 82. Cable 84 provides a pathfrom the frame grabber 70 to the video camera 82 for synchronization anda return path from video camera output 82 to frame grabber for the videosignal.

If the pulse received by the AND gate 89a is enabled because flip flopoutput 85 is high, the strobe will pass through AND gate 89a, enter thestrobe input 94a and fire the strobe lamp 93a. The strobe lamp willproduce a very short light pulse of approximately 10 microsecondslength. The light pulse from the strobe lamp 93a illuminates the wingarea. The reflected light from ice free specular area of the wing willbe left hand circularly polarized because of the right land circularpolarizer 30 at the output of strobe lamp 93a. Because the video camera82 has a right hand circular polarizer 40 at its input, it acts as partof an isolator. That is, any reflection from a clean metal specular areaof the wing will reflect left hand polarized light which will not beable to get through the right hand circular polarizer 40 of the camera80 and thus these areas as viewed by the camera will be very dark. Theimage sent by the video camera to the frame grabber will also appearvery dark as well as the stored image that is sent from the framegrabber buffer memory into the video monitor 72 input 79 via wire 71.

Where there is ice present on the wing it will spoil the circularpolarization of the polarized incident light and the image scene of thereflective light picked up by camera 80 and viewed on monitor 72 willnot be dimmed.

When the strobe signal passes through AND gate 89a, it simultaneouslyresets flip flop 85 to the opposite state such that AND gate 89b isenabled. Therefore, the next pulse from the pulse generator 75 into theframe grabber 70 causes the corresponding strobe pulse to be generatedwhich will be gated through AND gate 89b to energize strobe lamp 93bwhose light output is left hand polarized. Energy from strobe lamp 93bthat strikes the wing 15 and returns from clean metal will be sent intothe right hand polarizer 40 of the video camera 80. However, in thiscase, because the polarizations are of opposite hand, the reflectedlight energy that enters from specular reflecting portions of the wing15 will pass through right hand polarizer 40 and into video camera 80via lens 81 with only minor attenuation. That is, light from the lefthanded circularly polarized source 93b, 30b is changed to right handedcircular polarization upon specular reflection from wing 15 and thislight may pass freely through the video camera's right hand circularpolarizer 40.

The corresponding analog signal from the video camera that is sent tothe frame grabber 70 is recorded in its frame memory buffer and isoutput along line 71 to the video monitor 80. This particular signalwill create an image that has little difference in light intensitybetween a specular area or an ice covered area. Polarization in thiscase is not important since the specularly reflected left handedcircularly polarized light will pass through the video camera's righthanded polarized filter 40. Thus, specular reflected returns and alsothe returns that come from paint or ice covered surfaces will passequally well. Accordingly, the blinking effect will be produced for thearea of a metallic surface which does not have ice on it.

Video camera 80 is preferably of the type with a built in electronicshutter such as the Hitachi KP-M1. Because the camera shutter can be setfor a very brief time interval that corresponds to the time interval ofthe strobe lamp illumination, the camera will be especially sensitive tothe bright light from the strobe lamps and very insensitive tobackground light which will be not be at a peak during the brief openshutter interval and will ignore all background light outside of theinterval that the shutter is open.

FIG. 4B shows an indirectly viewed video based ice detecting systememploying one strobed laser spotlight that makes it suitable for usewith high background illumination levels. In FIG. 4B a strobe lamp 103ais a pulsed laser which typically has an output at a wavelength in theregion of about 800 nanometers. Light from laser strobe lamp 103a issent through a right hand circular polarizer 30 and covers the field ofview 22a. The light from a laser is often naturally linearly polarizedwithout using a linear polarizer and in such a case it may be circularlypolarized using just a properly oriented quarter wave retarder plate 12.The right hand polarizer 30 must be rotated to the proper position sothat its self-contained linear polarizer is in line with thepolarization of the laser lamp output in the case that the laser lightis naturally linearly polarized.

Video camera 80 views the scene via a narrow band interference filter104 which is centered about the laser 103a output wavelength. Generally,such a filter will have a bandpass of approximately 10 nanometers andreject all light outside of the bandpass wavelength.

Reflected polarized light from the specular reflecting part of wing 15entering the video camera 80 also passes through a rotating right handcircular polarizer 140 placed in front of the video camera lens 81. Therotating right hand polarizer 140 is driven by a motor 151. A signalfrom an encoder 153 attached to a motor 151 is sent only when therotating right hand circular polarizer 140 has its plane parallel to thelenses 81 at the video camera input so that the optical axes of suchlenses and of the polarizer are in alignment.

The analog video signal from the video camera is sent to frame grabber70 input 83 via cable 84 and on the same cable the frame grabbersynchronizing outputs are sent to the video camera input 82. A monitorplus VCR (optional) 72 is connected to the frame grabber video outputvia cable 71. The image of the wing 15a and the image of ice area 16a onmonitor 72 corresponds to wing 15 and ice area 16 which are in the fieldof view of both the illumination patterns 22a from laser strobe lamp103a and camera field of view 23.

In operation of polarizer 140, synchronous motor 151 rotates the righthand circular polarizer 140 in front of the video camera 80 at a highrate of approximately 600 RPM. The plane of the right handed circularpolarizer 40 lines up with the lens plane of the video camera lens 81twice per revolution. Thus, there are 1200 times per minute that apicture may be taken. The output from an encoder on the rotating shaftof polarizer 140 is used to identify each time that the rotatingpolarizer passes through such an aligned position. The two positions perrotation are alternately isolating and non-isolating and correspond tothe FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B illustrations of the isolating and non-isolatingmodes achieved by turning one of the circular polarizers.

The synchronizing pulses from the shaft encoder are sent to aprogrammable binary counter 160 which can be set to divide by anydesired number. The output pulses from the binary counter are sent tothe trigger input 77 of the frame grabber 70 along wire 73. A typicalcounter divides by any integer between 1 and 16. Counter 160 allows therate at which pictures are taken to be adjusted from a very rapid rateto a slow rate. For example, the rate at which pictures wall be takenwhen the divider is set to 16 will be 1200 pictures per minute dividedby 16. To insure that alternating isolating and non-isolating states areobtained it is necessary to use only odd numbers as the divisor.

In both cases of FIGS. 4A and 4B electronic circuits are preferably usedto gate the video camera 80 to accept light only during the activeinterval of the strobe light. Also, in both cases optical bandpassfilters may be used in front of the camera to match the strobe lamp'speak wavelength while simultaneously blocking out most of thewavelengths associated with ambient lighting. The typical strobe light,a xenon flash tube, produces a 10 microsecond flash which may besynchronized to the 1/10,000 second shutter of a commercial CCD videocamera. Since the unshuttered camera would normally integrate ambientlight for at least one field, or 16 milliseconds, there is animprovement factor of 1606:1--the effect of ambient sunlight can bereduced by 1606:1. This 1606:1 factor can be further improved bymatching the strobe lamp (or pulse laser source) with a filter that cutsdown the ambient wide band light by a much greater amount than theillumination source.

In both the systems of FIGS. 4A and 4B the video from the video camerais captured in a frame grabber and displayed on a video monitor. Thus,if the system alternates between the isolator and non-isolator state ata 2.22 Hz rate (division=9) the picture on the monitor will be updatedevery 0.45 second and the human observer watching the monitor will seethe ice free metallic surfaces blink between dark and bright at the 2.22Hz rate.

The embodiment of FIGS. 4A and 4B effectively add an image processingcomputer which performs arithmetic operations on individual pixels inmultiple frame stores; one frame store per captured picture. The abilityto perform operations on pixels allows working with portions of theimage that are of low intensity and also provides further means foreliminating the deleterious effects of undesirable backgroundillumination such as sunlight.

Even if a curved aircraft surface region is illuminated by multipleillumination sources of circularly polarized light, it will be foundthat due to the varied orientations of the surface normal with respectto the illumination sources and receiver 6 there will be bright regionsand dim regions in the image of the aircraft surface. The bright regionswill correspond to those areas where the surface normal has the properorientation to directly reflect the light from at least one of theillumination sources into the camera lens. The dim regions correspond tothose areas of tile aircraft surface where the surface normal is suchthat the light from the illuminators is reflected predominantly awayfrom the camera lens. As previously described, portions of the imagethat correspond to an ice free surface and are brightly lit will tend tovary between white and black in successive pictures on the monitors ofthe FIGS. 4A and 4B apparatus. However, portions of the aircraft surfacethat are ice free but in a dim region will vary between very dark grayand black in successive pictures and so may be difficult to identify.This problem will exist both because of the limited dynamic range of themonitor and camera and because the ratio of dark to light isintrinsically less for off axis returns. Any remaining background due tosunlight further reduces the apparent brightness ratio between ice freeregions of successive images, particularly in the dim regions, by addingunwanted illumination to the images taken in both the isolating andnon-isolating mode.

An optimum use of the equipment of FIGS. 4A and 4B is to first capturean image in the frame store that corresponds to strobing the illuminatorbut blocking the light from specular reflection from ice free metal;i.e., capture a picture in the isolator mode. Next, the illuminator isstrobed and a picture is captured in the non-isolating mode. Finally, apicture is captured with the illuminator strobe off; this captures apicture that consists purely of the undesirable background light. If thereceiver (detector) optics is being varied between pictures to changebetween the isolating and non-isolating mode of operation, it is notimportant which mode it is in when the background image is capturedbecause both modes will have been balanced for equal light attenuationof unpolarized light.

The digital value corresponding to the background illumination in eachpixel of the frame grabber holding the background may now be subtractedfrom each corresponding value in each of the pixels of the image inwhich specular returns were blocked; i.e., from each pixel of the imagetaken in the isolating mode. The process of subtracting the backgroundis repeated for each pixel in the frame grabber holding the image takenin the non-isolating mode. At this point, assuming linearity of thepixel values, the effect of any remaining background light has beenremoved from the two frame stores. If the recording or digitizingprocess is not completely linear the non-linearity must be removedbefore performing the subtraction. This is normally performed at thetime the image is first digitized and entered into the frame store viathe use of a look up table in the image processor and is well known inthe state of the art.

Once the images in the frame grabbers have had the effects of backgroundillumination removed the image processor can find the ratio ofamplitudes between corresponding pixels in the two images. By forming aratio of the value of the intensity of the pixels in the second(non-isolating) divided by the value of the intensity of thecorresponding pixels in the first (isolating) a ratio having valuesgenerally equal to one or greater than one will be obtained. Ice freemetallic surfaces that have surface normals reflecting the illuminationtowards the camera lens will have the highest ratios. A normalizingvalue approximately equal to the Nth root of one divided by the largestof the two pixel values that created the ratio (generally, the value ofthe pixel from the non-isolating picture) may be used as a multiplier torelatively enhance the ratio from the ice free surfaces that are dim dueto their being off-axis with respect to directing the reflected lighttowards the camera. N is typically an integer equal to or greater than2. Of course, only values higher than some chosen threshold should be sonormalized so that the system does not respond to noisy signals. Ifdesired, the preceding arithmetic manipulation of pixel values mayinstead be performed on groups of pixels that correspond to segmentedand/or filtered portions of the aircraft surface image. These filteringtechniques which include low pass spatial filtering and median filteringmay be used to operate on noisy images and are well known in the stateof the art. Another suitable metric for comparing correspondingisolating and non-isolating pixel or region brightness amplitudes is thenormalized difference. This may be formed by subtracting correspondingpixel or region amplitudes and dividing the result by the sum of theiramplitudes.

To highlight ice free regions in the most easily interpreted form, theratios may be assigned to colors as, for example, that high ratios areassigned to the color green, low ratios to the color red, andintermediate regions with the color yellow. These colors may be used tocolor the non-isolator image on the screen of the color video monitor.Optionally, the ratios may be encoded in black to white intensity levelsthat may be displayed in the same manner as the color encoded images.Such levels may be used to indicate ice thickness according to theamount of depolarization observed.

All of the preceding techniques of using isolator and non-isolatorstructures may be implemented by using linearly polarized light in theilluminator, rather than circular, and equipping the receiver (detector)with a linear polarizer that is alternately aligned with and then atright angles to the polarizer in the illuminator. This mode of operationdepends upon the fact that an ice-free metallic surface will returnpolarized light approximately unchanged whereas an ice covered metalsurface or matte material will de-polarize the light. Thus, once again,an ice covered metallic surface will remain at approximately the sameintensity. Of course, the transmitted linear polarization can bealternated between being aligned with and then being at right angles tothe direction of a linear polarizer in the receiver to achieve the sameend.

FIG. 5A shows the details of the FIG. 4B rotating circular polarizer 40and video camera 80 assembly. Video camera 80 is mounted to a bracket150. A motor 151 is also mounted to bracket 150 and has a slotted outputshaft 152 for holding the circular polarizer 40 to rotate in synchronismwith the shaft. An encoder disk 153 mounted on shaft 15 is used to sensethe position of the rotating polarizer 140. Encoder disk 153 has a photooptical interrupter 154 supported by a member 157 affixed to bracket150. The encoder disk is solid everywhere except for two positions, 180°opposite, which are in line with photo interrupter 154 only when theoptical plane of polarizer 140 is parallel to that of the lenses invideo camera lens assembly 81.

A top view of this arrangement is shown in FIG. 5B and FIG. 5C whichshows an encoder pickup 154 which incorporates an LED light source and aphoto diode in one package that is commercially available as Optek partnumber OPB120A6.

FIG. 6 is an optical schematic of the laser diode spotlight assembly.Light from laser diode 300 is collected by a collimating lens 301 andthe collimated beam is sent into the telescope formed by a negative lens302 and a positive lens 303. When the focal point of the positive lensis coincident with that of the negative lens, a collimated beam emergesfrom the positive lens 303. Positive lens 303 is shown in position 310so that its focal point coincides at 312 with that of negative lens 302.A collimated beam 304 is the result of this configuration. When thepositive lens 303 is moved closer to the negative lens, such as toposition 311 in FIG. 6, the beam 306 that emerges is expanding and socan cover a wider field of view. Thus, by adjusting the position of thelens from 310 to a point where it is close to the negative lens, it ispossible to obtain any output light cone between collimation and a coneslightly narrower in angle than that of the beam 313 as it leavesnegative lens 302. The arrangement of FIG. 6 is also applicable to allother illumination sources shown when the source (filament or flashlamp) is small.

FIG. 7 shows an indirect viewing system for ice on metal detection thatuses a synchronous detection method that can operate with onephotosensor or an array of photosensors, according to the field of viewand resolution required. The illumination source for the surface area 15to be inspected is not shown but it may be any bright source of eitherright handed or left handed circularly polarized light.

The area that is to be inspected is imaged via camera lens 400 ontophotodiode 402, or onto an array of similar photo diodes. The circularpolarizer required for isolation is formed by quarter wave retarderplate 42, linear polarizer 411 and Verdet rotator 401. The Verdetrotator is typically of garnet and energized by a magnetic field createdby a coil 450 via power buffer amplifiers 402a and 402b whichalternately drives current through the solenoid, first in one directionand then in the other. The effect is to cause linearly polarized lightfrom the quarter ware plate passing through the rotator to change thedirection of its polarization by plus or minus 45° according to thedirection of the solenoid current flow. Other devices based on the Halland/or Pockel's effect which use high voltage fields could be used in asimilar manner.

In the static condition with no current flow through the coil 450, bothright handed and left handed reflected circularly polarized light fromarea 15 will pass through the polarizer 411 to the photo diodes 402 withlittle attenuation because the slow axis of quarter wave plate 42 is inline with the polarization axis of linear polarizer 411. Therefore,light of either hand circular polarization is at 45° to the polarizerand so can pass through polarizer 411 without large attenuation.However, when the coil is alternately energized with current flow inopposite directions, the addition and subtraction of 45° to the plane ofpolarization present at the output of the quarter wave plate 42 causesthe plane of polarization to alternate between vertical and horizontalat linear polarizer 411. Thus, reflected circularly polarized inputlight will alternately be allowed to pass and not pass to the photodiode detector.

Because the rotation of the plane of polarization is performed viacurrent direction switching, it can be performed quite rapidly. A 10 KHzrate, which is adequate for the apparatus, is easily obtained. A clocksource 406 provides pulses to a flip flop 403 at its toggle input 405.The flip flop 403 outputs 404a and 404b are amplified by buffers 402aand 402b to energize coil 450 in a direction that varies according tothe state of the flip flop 403.

The optical energy received at the photo diode array 402 generates acorresponding electrical signal that is applied over input line 408 to adifferential amplifier 407. The output 409 of amplifier 407 feeds twobuffer amplifiers 410a and 410b via their inputs 411a and 411b. Bothamplifiers 411 have equal gain but are of opposite polarity.

A multiplexer 413 has its inputs 414a and 414b connected to the twoamplifier 410a and 410b outputs 412a and 412b. The multiplexer 413directs its two inputs to its single output 415 according to the stateof its select terminal 460 which is connected to output 404a of the flipflop 403. The output 415 of the multiplexer 413 is applied to anintegrator 416 or optional low pass filter 426. The integrator 416 isformed by input resistor 420, operational amplifier 417, capacitor 421and field effect transistor 422 which is used to periodically reset theintegrator by discharging the capacitor. This arrangement is well knownin the art. The integrator 416 (or filter 426) output 419, when greaterthan a threshold voltage positive or negative as set by a double endzener diode 480 will energize one of the oppositely poled LED's 424a or424b.

The detection circuit of FIG. 7 rejects the light reflected from diffuseor ice covered areas but passes that from ice-free specular surfaces.Diffuse or ice covered surfaces return unpolarized light to thedetector. With these type surfaces, although the current direction inthe Verdet rotator 401 is changing direction at a 10 KHz rate, the lightreceived by the photo diode 402 remains at a constant level--the lightamplitude is unchanged because the light is not polarized.

The electrical voltage at the output 409 of amplifier 407 responds tothe input level and remains constant. The multiplexer 415 alternatelyselects equal constant level positive and negative voltages so that theintegrator 416 (or low pass filter 426) output stays close to zero andneither of the LED's 424a or 424b draw current since the output voltagedoes not overcome the zener diode 480 threshold voltage.

It can be seen that when area 15 is ice free the light returned to theapparatus will be circularly polarized and the signal at photo diode 402will alternate between a large and small value at a 10 KHz rate. Sincethe two voltages selected at terminals 414a and 414b will differ inamplitude, they will not average to zero at the output of the integrator416 (or low pass filter 426) and one of the LED's will light, accordingto whether the larger of the two voltages at point 409 was received whenthe state of flip flop 403's output 404a was high or low. This, in turnusually depends upon whether a right handed or left handed illuminatoris being used. The output LED can also change if the area being observed15 receives most of its circularly polarized illumination indirectly viaspecular reflection from another surface, since each such reflectionchanges the state (hand) of the circular polarization.

The apparatus of FIG. 7, when used with a single photo-detector isuseful with a mechanical drive apparatus that scans the optical axis ofthe assembly in both elevation and azimuth to generate a raster scanwhich will create a full image of a scene on a point by point basis. Theoutput 419 may be sent to a video display which is being scanned via itsdeflection circuits in synchronism with the mechanical drive apparatusto paint the image on the screen. As an alternative, the optical axismay be scanned in a raster pattern using azimuth and elevationdeflecting galvanometer arrangements such as are available from GeneralScanning Corporation. Of course, such synthetically generated images mayalso be digitized and processed using the image processing hardware andsoftware techniques previously described.

FIG. 8A shows an embodiment of the invention useful when it is importantto obtain ice detection information in an extremely rapid mode that isuseful for scanning across an object in a short time without thesmearing or the misregistration that may occur when the camera ispanning and sequential pictures are taken for the isolating andnon-isolating modes.

In FIG. 8A, a strobe lamp 103a is used with linear polarizer 501 toilluminate the surface 11 via polarized light cone 22a. The video camera80 with lens 81 images the scene as contained in field of view 23 whichoverlaps cone 22a. A polarization preserving beam splitter 503 is usedto divide the energy received by lens 81 into two substantially equalamounts which are directed to video cameras 80 and 80a. Camera 80 isfitted with linear polarizer 500 which is in alignment with linearpolarizer 501 so that reflected specular energy may pass with littleloss and so creates a non-isolating mode receiver. Camera 80a also isfitted with a linear polarizer 501 but its axis is aligned at 90 degreesto that of linear polarizer 500 so that reflected specular energy isblocked which creates an isolating mode receiver.

When the synchronizing pulse is received via wire 87, the strobe lamp103a flashes for a brief time; 10 microseconds is typical. During thebrief flash interval the isolating and non-isolating images are capturedon the silicon CCD devices (typical) in the two cameras, 80a and 80,respectively. The two images can be read out sequentially via amultiplexer and recorded in the digital frame buffers of the imageprocessor. A multiplexer of the type required is built into the Cognex4400 and is normally part of most commercial frame grabbers and imageprocessors. The processing of the images is substantially the same aspreviously described with amplitude comparisons being made betweencorresponding pixels or corresponding regions.

Because the two cameras use a common lens 81 the images will have topand bottom reversed (one is viewed through a mirror) but are otherwisesubstantially geometrically identical. Calibration may be obtained byrecording any two points in the field of view and mechanically adjustingthe CCD chips via translation and rotation to have a one to onecorrespondence of pixels. This can also be accomplished via softwarewithin the image processor and such conventional software is normallyfurnished with the image processor. Because the lens 81 and cameras 80and 80a are held in alignment, the calibration, whether via mechanicalor software means, need only be performed once, at the factory.

In FIG. 8A, the linear polarizers may be replaced with circularpolarizers such that at least one of the circular polarizers in thereceiver has the same "hand" as that of the transmitter to provide anisolating node image and the other has the opposite "hand" or not becircularly polarizing and have suitable attenuation to ensure thatdiffuse objects have the same intensity in both pictures. Additionally,if polarizing beam splitters are used, one or more of the polarizers inthe receivers may be omitted since polarizing beam splitters will divideenergy according to polarization properties.

In FIG. 8A, the isolating and non-isolating images may be obtained withtwo separate cameras as shown, but with two separate and substantiallymatched (in focal length and axis parallelism) lens means, one percamera, that create geometrically corresponding images. Thecorrespondence need not be exact if corresponding image features orregions or pixel groups are compared with respect to average amplitudein the isolating and non-isolating mode.

An alternative arrangement shown in FIG. 8B, section view, uses a mirror510 in each path and so does not invert one image with respect to theother.

As can be appreciated, the camera in all embodiments may be replacedwith a multiplicity of cameras at various positions and angles to theilluminated surface to gather more of the specularly reflected light andsimilarly, a multiplicity of illuminators may be used at variouspositions and angles to the illuminated surface to assist the cameras ingathering more of the specularly reflected light. It is only necessarythat when such arrangements are used that all control signals andpolarizers be common to the group of cameras that replaces one camera orto the group of illuminators that replaces one illuminator.

The arrangements of FIGS. 8A and FIG. 8B require multiple cameras andbeam splitters which are similar to first generation color cameras whichemployed three separate cameras to separately record three separateimages, one for each of the primary colors. More modern color camerasemploy a single camera with a patterned color filter that is organizedin closely spaced columns; e.g., R,G,B,R,G,B,R,G,B . . . where Rrepresents red, G represents green and B represents blue. This has theadvantage of using only one camera plus simple electronics and requiresa one time adjustment of the filter to the camera chip at the factory.The same identical color camera pickup chip and electronics circuits maybe used to manufacture a polarization sensitive camera by replacing thetri-color filter used in the color camera with the two layer filtershown in the assembly of FIG. 9A.

In FIG. 9A, the camera pickup is represented by CCD chip 900 withtypical scan lines 901. A thin linear polarizer 910 with polarizationaxis at 45 degrees to the "slow" axis defined for patterned retarderplate 910 is located touching, or in close proximity to the illuminatedsurface of the CCD chip. Retarder plate 920 is manufactured from abirefringent material and selectively etched so that adjacent columnsdiffer by 1/4 wave with respect to the retardation produced and apattern of +,0,-,+,0,-,+,0,-, . . . is maintained where + represents+1/4 wave (923), 0 represents equality of phase (922), and - represents-1/4 wave (921). The patterned retarder plate must be in close proximityto the polarizing plate. The retarder plate selective etching may bedone chemically or with ion beams and is well known in thesemiconductor-industry. The process is currently being used to createmicro lens arrays known as binary optics.

The arrangement shown in FIG. 9B requires two mask and etch steps toobtain the three thicknesses needed for manufacturing the threeretardations needed for the three column types. The optional filling 924adds non birefringent material having an optical index approximatelyequal to that of the birefringent material to provide the overallstructure of a thin glass plate with respect to a focused light beam. Asshown in FIG. 9B, the columns are brought into alignment with the pixels905 in a CCD column in exactly the same manner as is done for a colorcamera.

In operation, the polarization images produced by the patterned retarderplate will be processed by the color cameras electronic circuits intoeither three separate images or a single composite image. In the casethat a single composite image results, it can be decoded by any colorreceiver into corresponding R,G,B images which will represent not thethree colors but the three states of circular polarization receivedwhich correspond to left, right and non polarized. These images may beprocessed according to all of the preceding methods regarding icedetection.

Although all cameras shown have been of rectangular format, in somecircumstances it may be preferable that a linear camera array (singlerow of pixels) be used and the field of view be transversely scanned viarotating polygon mirrors, galvanometers, rotating prisms, or otherscanning means to synthesize a rectangular image of some desired format.At such times the illuminator may provide a "line of light" which wouldbe likewise scanned in synchronism with the scanning of the lineararray. This is suitable for fields of view which may be long and narrowand require more resolution than may be obtained from the standardcamera format.

The invention is to facilitate ease of use and promote record keepingwhich is of vital importance to the aviation safety industry. Althoughnot shown in the various drawings, it is anticipated that flight number,aircraft identification, time and date and other pertinent informationwould be aurally, visually, or textually annotated to the displaymonitors and to the disk or tape recordings made with the ice detectionequipment. The performance of this task would be implemented withcommercially available components that are often part of the equipmentspecified (cameras and recorders) or via additional "plug compatible"annotation and editing devices.

It may be desirable to locate the recording and viewing or controlequipments at remote locations such as the aircraft cabin, controltower, ground control area, or aircraft terminal. Cameras andilluminators may also be built into various remote portions of theaircraft from which the wing or other surface is to be monitored.Accordingly, the various wires shown in the drawings, whether forpurposes of data or signal transfer or control, may be replaced withtelemetry equipment operating via radio, infra-red, power lines or fiberoptic links.

Although the equipment described separates clear wing from ice and snow,it does not separate (except visually to the operator's eye) runway andother background surfaces from ice covered wing surfaces, etc. This canbe done via image processing techniques or stereo ranging. Imageprocessing techniques to be employed would segment surfaces of likecolor or texture and only color red those "non-blinking" areas that aresubstantially surrounded by "blinking" areas (green). That is, ice wouldbe highlighted only when substantially surrounded by clear metal. As analternative, 3-D triangulation, stereo ranging, color or surface textureinformation may be used to separate foreground from background and onlythe foreground (wing or other aircraft surface) have non-blinking areastagged to highlight ice formation.

What is claimed:
 1. Apparatus for canceling background light reflectedfrom an object comprising:means for producing an image using ambientlight reflected from said object; means for storing light amplitude dataof a plurality of pixels of said image; means for projecting artificialillumination onto said object; means for producing an illuminated imageproduced by said artificial illumination plus said ambient light; andmeans for subtracting said light amplitude data from correspondingpixels of said illuminated image to compensate for ambient lightcontribution to said illuminated image.
 2. Apparatus for detecting amaterial on a surface comprising:means for projecting a light source ona transmitting path onto said surface; means for receiving reflectedlight on a receiving path from at least one of said material and saidsurface; means in at least one of said transmitting path and saidreceiving path for alternating between a blocking condition and anon-blocking condition; said blocking condition having a differenteffect on light transmission than said non-blocking condition, whereby aratio of light at said means for receiving reflected light from saidmaterial and said surface is different between said blocking conditionand said non-blocking condition; means for storing an amplitude ofreflected light from said surface under ambient light, with said meansfor projecting turned off; and means for compensating a light receivedat said means for receiving for said amplitude during operation of saidmeans for projecting, whereby said ambient light in said means forreceiving is compensated.
 3. Apparatus according to claim 2, whereinsaid means for compensating includes:a frame grabber; first means foroperating said frame grabber to store pixels of a reference image ofsaid object while said means for projecting is turned off, whereby saidpixels are responsive to ambient light only; second means for operatingsaid frame grabber to store pixels of one of a blocking and non-blockingimage of said object while said means for projecting is turned on, saidblocking image obtained during said blocking condition and saidnon-blocking image obtained during said non-blocking condition; andmeans for subtracting amplitudes of pixels in said reference image fromamplitudes of corresponding pixels in said one of a blocking andnon-blocking image, whereby contributions of said ambient light areremoved from said image.
 4. Apparatus according to claim 2, wherein saidmeans for storing is operative under said blocking condition. 5.Apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said means for compensatingincludes means for compensating on a pixel by pixel basis.
 6. Apparatusaccording to claim 2, wherein said means for compensating includes:meansfor subtracting said amplitude of reflected light during said blockingcondition to produce a blocked amplitude; means for subtracting saidamplitude of reflected light during said non-blocking condition toproduce a non-blocked amplitude; means for subtracting a larger of saidblocked amplitude and said non-blocked amplitude from the other thereofto produce a difference; means for dividing said difference by a sum ofsaid blocked amplitude and said non-blocked amplitude to produce anormalizing root value; means for dividing said blocked amplitude by amathematical function of said normalizing root value; and means fordividing said non-blocked amplitude by said mathematical function. 7.Apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said means for compensatingincludes compensating on a basis of groups of pixels.
 8. Apparatusaccording to claim 7, wherein said groups of pixels correspond to atleast one of segmented and filtered portions of said surface. 9.Apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising means for forming aratio of amplitudes of pixels in said non-blocking condition toamplitudes of pixels in said blocking condition.
 10. Apparatus accordingto claim 9, further comprising means for multiplying said ration by avalue equal to the Nth root of 1/A, where N>2 and A is a value equal toa larger of the two amplitudes forming said ratio.
 11. Apparatusaccording to claim 10, wherein said means for multiplying is operativeonly when said ratio exceeds a predetermined value, whereby operation onnoisy signals is avoided.